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Story:The End of Eternity/E10
X The barren wastelands of the earth flew by in the distance as Arend and Klaytaza sat completely alone in a train car. There was nobody else in the train besides the two of them, and after their journey had started, the car been draped in complete silence. Even without his help or the ability to stop time, Klaytaza had killed three Keys and their Masters, all alone. After she returned and absorbed the celestial essence of Natalia’s downed Key, as she did with every enemy they had defeated in the past, she had handed Arend the tickets for their journey and he had used them to input their destination to the train’s mainframe. Trains in this era were completely automatic; after buying tickets to a certain destination, a train would transport its passengers to their inputted destination. The vehicle was extremely fast, but the two of them had a long way to go, so their journey would take hours at least. Arend was not looking forward to the journey at all. After a few minutes of sitting in the seat next to Klaytaza and recovering his breath, his adrenaline and excitement from the near-death experience began to lower and he returned to his senses. That was when the despair hit him. Only then did Arend realize that he was, now more than ever, completely alone. He had abandoned his family and his sister, just when she began to understand and cherish him. There was a very high chance that he would never see any of them again, and this thought was surprisingly painful to bear. Not only that, but he had killed the only person who had loved him and would ever love him. He did not know why Natalia had loved him so, nor why she persisted, but if what she said was true – if she really continued to hold infatuation for him after countless years and countless lives – then her love was true and powerful. And he had killed it with a whim. Maybe all this started with the twins. His original two friends. He entertained this thought for a second. What if they had survived? Would every other human on the earth have survived, if he had the power to save just two lives? He hated not knowing the answers. Arend thought that he hated everything. He always thought that he could never love nor be loved, and the role of a pitiful human existence was his to bear without discussion. But was this simply because he had never truly been loved? Would his mindset have to change now that his ideas had been proven wrong? As much as he wanted to shake his head at this thought, still Arend hesitated. He knew that he had gone too deep to back out now. People had died by his hand; there were hundreds of people who would hunt him down and kill him if he gave them an inch. A gigantic moon-like object was edging ever forward towards the earth; the end of the world was nigh. He could no longer escape or regret what he had chosen. Even knowing these facts, though, still Arend was clouded by doubt and fear. The sinking feeling of nervousness and doubt continued to dwell in his bowels, and he wanted only to lay his head in his hands and cry. Instead, he simply cried out into the emptiness of the train and the world beyond it. Klaytaza looked to his side. “Were you hurt in my absence, Master?” Arend looked down at his hands. “No, Klaytaza. Don’t worry about me.” His words were mere small talk; it was unlikely that Klaytaza felt any emotion at all. The Key looked straight forward again. She had not moved since the journey began. “As you command, Master.” Arend looked to her with a look of plain disgust. Now more than ever he resented her emotionless mind and the unnatural sleekness of her body. She was beautiful, to be sure, peerless even… but she wasn’t human. She never could be. Was that what made her different? Klaytaza would never waver, never hesitate, never feel any guilt… because she was not a human. That’s what he liked about her. And because Arend himself was a human, he would undoubtedly be subjected to these feelings at some point. Why did that bother him? Surely it would be better to be a human than a cyborg at the command of some young, idealistic fool, he imagined… But that was simply not true, he realized. Because he hated humans, anything would be preferable than continuing his life as one. Existence was worthless – meaningless, painful, full of misery and suffering, excruciating in its scathing claws. Nobody could escape it without meeting their death. And that was just what Arend was going to do. He so hated the human race that he would beget his only life, and the lives of all around him, to end all existence. There would be no more space to cradle the earth; no more time to allow it to turn and revolve; no more life to grace its bountiful fields, beautiful once again in solitude. He wouldn’t end all these omni-physical forces, of course; he doubted it was even possible. But if there were no more humans to realize and be affected by these laws, did they still exist? Was that really what he wanted? Arend cried out again and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. Never had he wavered so, nor had he been so… confused. And never had he truly felt so alone. This was truly the only way to describe his tumultuous mind. So many emotions rushed through his shivering body, from fear to doubt, despair to weakness, agony to homesickness, regrets to anger; but especially hatred. No matter what, even during this trying time, he still prominently felt hatred towards everything and everyone. The one thing he hated the most was himself. Before, he had a sort of morbid confidence – he hated everything equally, with himself a bit above the rest. His own existence proved that he was worth something, and his superiority made this something better than anyone else’s. But now that he had removed other’s lives and betrayed emotions, could he really say that he was superior to other humans? Hadn’t he sinned just like every other living person? The answer was no. He had sinned more. Every human always has a tiny spark of hope in their heart, and it is from this seed that the stalks of positive emotions flow. In Arend’s heart, there was no hope. No soil for positivity to blossom. Not even anyone to listen to his problems. He had killed his only two friends; pushed away his own flesh and blood; and murdered the one person who had ever truly loved him. Arend had no positive emotions or sensations left to him. He only had the cracked rocks of hatred, and it was these cracked rocks – and his choice of the Thousand Eternal Annihilation – that made him worth less than anyone else on the planet. “If there is a God,” Arend said through grit teeth as his body trembled, “He will have to beg me for forgiveness.” Klaytaza, as if reading his pain-filled mind, looked to her Master and gained a sad look in her eyes. “What are you afraid of?” “Ceasing to exist,” Arend replied pathetically. It had all came to him as he watched the life drain from Natalia’s eyes as he killed her, and when he remembered the pain in Avdotya’s eyes when he stated his distaste for her. The pain of losing life, giving up on breathing, and never being remembered. He had thought it was just another obstacle to surmount, but that was over his head at the time. Now he realized that to overcome the fear of death and betrayal would be to overcome basic animal instincts. Not being an animal, Klaytaza felt none of this fear. “All existences must end. That is a law of the universe. We are simply bringing about the law’s justice.” “Justice… So is killing judicious? There are still millions of people on this blackened earth… to kill them all, would that be justice, Klaytaza?” “Yes,” she stated without a second of hesitation. “There is no greater justice, both for mankind or the earth it walks upon.” “But what about me? Mankind and I… we are the same, but we are different. I am not the world nor its population… I am myself.” “And what do you think of yourself?” “I hate myself. I don’t want to exist.” “And yet you shy away from eradication. Humans never cease to confuse me, Master.” Klaytaza tilted her head slightly, as if deep in thought. Arend said nothing in response. The Key continued to speak after a silent moment. “You are not the only human to fear their death. All are like this in their final moments, truly.” “Yes, but I was supposed to be special. I thought I was distant enough from the human race to destroy it without qualms… to witness the end of the world. To take joy in it. If I can’t handle killing a girl and running away from another, how will I erase a thousand others?” “You are special, Master. You and I are alike. You are not a simple human.” “I am!” screamed Arend. He looked to Klaytaza with a crazed, panicked look in his eye, sweat beginning to run down his brow once again. Undeterred, the key looked to him with those dull and sad eyes of hers. The train continued to run through the barren world. With a deep breath, Arend continued to speak in a lower tone. “I am human. I sin just like every other… I am weak, just like any other. I can do nothing!” “You can do everything because you see that you can do nothing. No other human has ever given into hopelessness and true clarity like you have, Master,” Klaytaza replied coolly. “Why is it that you exist in this world?” “I was created. Brought here by God’s will… and against mine.” “Correct. The Creator crafted you, as he did for all. Why do you continue to exist?” “I have not died yet.” “Incorrect.” Arend bit his lip and looked down with a perturbed brow. “I exist… because I crave life. My body and my unconscious mind choose to live despite my self’s protests. I know life is meaningless, but as a human, my instinct is to survive.” “Correct,” Klaytaza said. She added, “You persist solely because of the vessel’s insistence, not the self’s. What is your ‘self’?” “My mind… my conscious self. My thoughts. My wishes… my dreams. The hatred within me. My true soul… the true me.” “And this self… does it sin? Is its existence wrong?” “No. It only thinks, and explores, and wishes to learn.” “So what is it about you that is wrong? That you wish to erase?” “The body. It lusts. It craves. It lies. It steals. It burns. It attacks. It flees. It corrupts. It weakens. It falters. It abandons. It wastes. It subjugates. It obeys. It commands. It hates. I hate. It sins.” “Correct. The vessel is flawed. So, then, what do you seek? Why does your ‘self’ rebel against the soul of all mankind? Why is it that you diverge from the wishes of all existence?” “Because the Creator – God – was mistaken in creating my body. It is flawed; it is weak! Not only does it corrode my very soul, but the souls of every other living person… and the world beneath us! We hurt the world, and are in turn hurt by the world. It’s an endless cycle… One that may reset, but will never end. And I can’t stand that!” Arend began to tear up from his anger; he had long since shed his blood-stained uniform jacket in his passion. “What do you plan to do?” “I will reject my material existence, and all those who persist alongside me. I will end the cages that God has created and set us all free into the vast soul field of nothingness. Oblivion will await us all, and we will flourish without the shackles of death.” “So you wish to end existence? Space? Time itself?” “Yes. There will be no ‘divine salvation’, for this is just a feint that returns us to the start of our lives. I would end our lives.” “Does humanity, then, deserve any salvation, if it is just a collection of sinful vessels and corrupted, hopeful minds?” “No.” Finally Klaytaza stood to meet Arend’s stance. She looked him in the eye. Nothing was said between the two for a long, long time. It could have been hours, but neither knew and neither moved. They stared at each other, one assessing and one understanding. Both slightly trembled from the train’s movement on the ground beneath their feet. Outside, the earth flew by, blackened and cracked beyond repair. Ruined. Fragments of previous civilizations, tossed and strewn about the land like toys discarded by a gigantic child, dotted the otherwise identical landscape. After an immeasurable amount of time staring at each other, the train began to noticeably slow down. On the horizon in the front of the train loomed a city, larger than any other city Arend or his family had ever been to. The scale and breadth of its broken down urban structures were unimaginable, and each one had the same amount of incredible wear pasted upon it. The city looked like it would collapse as a whole with the slightest gust of wind, yet the cold air breezed past and the ruins still stood. The destination was upon them. Above the destination loomed the red moon. Klaytaza was the first to speak again. “Your soul knows of eternity. My body knows of eternity.” “We are eternity,” Arend stated in response. “Correct.” The train stopped. The city of the Thousand Eternal awaited. “And we will end it,” Arend continued. “We will end everything. And in the final moments of existence, when the Ritual has failed and all is collapsing – we will end eternity. You and I will witness the end, and then we will join it.” Klaytaza smiled. “Correct.” KEYS TO ETERNITY REMAINING: 990